IPL 2018 Fixtures: Mumbai Indians Play Chennai Super Kings in Opener

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the fixtures list of the much-awaited eleventh season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), on Wednesday. The matches will be played at nine venues, across 51 days from April 7 to May 27, 2018.

"Defending champions Mumbai Indians will take on two-time winners Chennai Super Kings in what promises to be a marquee opening game of Indian Premier League 2018, to be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday, April 7, 2018," the BCCI statement read.

Meanwhile, fans in Chennai and Jaipur will once again get their share of the IPL frenzy as M. A. Chidambaram Stadium (Chepauk) and the Sawai Mansingh Stadium will host home matches of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals respectively. Kings XI Punjab will play their three home matches in Indore and four matches at home in Mohali.

Wankhede Stadium will be hosting the final this time around between the winner of Qualifier 1 and the winner of Qualifier 2, on May 27. Here is the entire fixtures list the latest season of the league.

The upcoming edition of the cash-rich league will feature 12 matches that will be played at 4:00 PM IST and 48 matches will start at 8:00 PM IST. The IPL governing council had last month accepted the broadcaster's request to shift the timings of the matches, however, a section of franchises who are 50 percent stakeholders in the IPL revenue model, expressed their grievances with the change in timings as it was done without consulting them.

Earlier, during the two-day auction on January 27 and 28, first-ever champions Rajasthan Royals broke their bank to sign the likes of Ben Stokes and Jaydev Unadkat for Rs 12.5 Cr and Rs 11.5 Cr respectively, to announce their intentions after returning to the league following a two-year hiatus.

India batsmen KL Rahul and Manish Pandey also set the cash registers ringing after they were sold to Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 11 Cr respectively. Australia superstars also raked in the moolah during the auction as Chris Lynn (Rs 9.6 Cr), Mitchell Starc (Rs 9.4 Cr) and Glenn Maxwell (Rs 9 Cr) respectively by their franchises.

Krunal Pandya and K Gowtham were the biggest gainers as far as uncapped Indian players were concerned as they were sold to Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals for Rs 8.8 Cr and Rs 6.2 Cr respectively.